1896. NOTES AND COMMENTS. 7 



accepted, names rejected, and total used in three volumes of the 

 British Museum Catalogue of Birds, in which the synonymy has 

 been worked out in so able a manner by the authors : — 

 Psittacidae, accepted 499, rejected 2,794 

 Sturniformes ,, 601 ,, 2,038 

 Picid^ „ 385 „ 2,010, 



and he points out that to designate 1,485 distinct birds, not less than 

 8,327 names have been used, of which 6,842 are considered as mean- 

 ingless terms by the compilers of the catalogue. As Herrera truly 

 says, " this is hideous." But as so many names are proposed by 

 persons who, because they live at a distance from great libraries, 

 are ignorant of previous writings on their subjects, we fear this 

 " hideousness " will last to the end of time. 



Erratics. 



" Who drives fat oxen must himself be fat," and who studies 

 erratic blocks must himself be erratic. At least, this is the only 

 conclusion we can draw from the remarkable eccentricity of the 

 Glacialists' Magazine, a so-called " Monthly Magazine of Glacial 

 Geology," edited by Percy F. Kendall, secretary of the British 

 Association Committee on Erratic Blocks, and published by F. H. 

 Butler, London. The heat of the summer melts the ice and checks 

 the advance of the Glacialists' Magazine ; with returning winter its 

 activity is renewed. Thus we explain the fact that the February and 

 March numbers are published at the end of November, and come 

 loaded with morainic debris that has fallen on them during the 

 intervening months. Now, this is exceedingly interesting ; but as a 

 scientific observation its value would be increased if the erratic editor 

 would only put the true date of publication on the wrapper. Why 

 does Mr. Kendall take no notice of our previous warning (vol. vi., 

 p. 231) ? We have heard of only one reason for issuing periodicals 

 with a false date, and that is the desire to gain an unjust priority 

 for a published statement. This cannot be Mr. Kendall's reason, for 

 he knows that, ethically considered, such action is on a par with the 

 publication of a fraudulent balance-sheet. We cannot put such 

 offenders in prison, but we shall continue to put them in the pillory. 



Glacial Geology in the North of England. 



We do not wish our remarks in the previous paragraph to dis- 

 parage the splendid work now being done in the north of England 

 by the members of the Glacialists' Association, who are bringing 

 this branch of geology in England into line with that of the 

 American school. We have received from Mr. T. Mellard Reade 

 three papers, which are a further illustration of the energy with 

 which glacial geology is being studied in the north of England. One 

 contains a description of some tarns in the Brecknockshire Beacons, 



